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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Nick Ames

Granit Xhaka: ‘People say you don’t give everything for the club, but that’s bull’

Granit Xhaka (centre) celebrates Arsenal’s opening-night win at Crystal Palace on Friday.
Granit Xhaka (centre) celebrates Arsenal’s opening-night win at Crystal Palace on Friday. Photograph: Marc Atkins/Getty Images

The behind-the-scenes documentaries so beloved of modern times are not known for their rough edges but, for Granit Xhaka, that was part of the point. He allowed the cameras into his home for the Amazon series that followed Arsenal last season and if it humanised him beyond the spiky, sometimes rash, often divisive but frequently highly effective character seen on the pitch then the film had done its work.

“For me it is fine because I have nothing to hide,” he says. “I am Granit here and the same at home. Only on the football pitch do I have a different mask: people have to accept that.”

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